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Hello, welcome to another episode of Unpacking Neuroqueerness. In this episode,

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I wanted to talk about something that I've been noticing more and more in the

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last few weeks, months, even years, but I think particularly in the last few weeks

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and months is the division that has been occurring among the autistic community,

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amongst people, in between people that identify as low support needs and people

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that identify as high support needs. Now, this conflict and division has been

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going on for a while, but I feel like it's become more pronounced in the last

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few weeks. So first of all, I wanted to speak of something called, and I've

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spoken about this before in episode 51, but there's something out there that's

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called ASPY supremacy, and I do understand the fact that there are a

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lot of autistic folks with lower support needs out there that do not like to

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call themselves disabled, and that is fine if they don't feel disabled by their

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autism. However, the problem is they reiterate the idea to the world that

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just because their autism doesn't disable them, they reiterate the idea that

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autism is not a disability for anybody, which is not true for those with higher

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support needs that may have more sensory issues that may require more

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assistance, that may require a caretaker, that may not be able to live by

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themselves or may have other needs in addition to those that I just stated,

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that are in fact disabled by being autistic, and a big problem with that

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is because if we tell society that autism is not a disability and that all

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autistics are happy being autistic all the time, then society will not want to

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provide accommodations. They'll see that as a way of not providing accommodations

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because if being autistic is 100% great all the time, then there's no reason

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for institutions such as schools and businesses to provide accommodations,

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which is very harmful for the individuals that need those accommodations. So

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that is the issue, that is a valid issue that has been happening with

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autistics with lower support needs trying to speak for the

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entire community and invalidating the higher support needs

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autistics and also trying to distance themselves by saying that

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they're not like the quote stereotypical autistics. Well these

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autistics do exist and so it can erase one's experience by

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saying that you're not like the so-called stereotypical autistics

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because many autistics are like that and you are basically saying that they are

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lesser or the idea that comes across is that certain

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autistics are lesser than which is completely untrue. Every

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autistic person is different and has their own experiences and experiences

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different traits and different intensities and so this is also the

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reason that I have mixed feelings around the support needs levels and of

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course that is we use support needs levels to replace functioning

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labels which are very harmful not only the fact that they're neurotypically

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biased it's functioning to an idea of like based on an idea of

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neurotypicality right on how well does an autistic person perform

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neurotypicality and that is just very unfair for those high

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maskers but because they get called like myself many times throughout my life

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I've been called high functioning and it's just not fair for given the fact

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that I have had to mask my autistic traits and been conditioned to mask my

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autistic traits my whole life because I've been afraid of being misjudged and

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ostracized by society and then it's really invalidating to be to be called

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high functioning when you're you know masking through exhaustion every day

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just to be not be seen as lesser and and low functioning of course assume it

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invalidates the strengths and humanity of those who have higher support needs and

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just need more structure and support around them in order to so-called

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function in a neurotypical society it does not mean that there are low

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functioning by nature they just require more support so that is where support

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needs comes from and and I understand that it's a good replacement for

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functioning labels however it can also be harmful because I also see it getting

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thrown around like online like even amongst the artistic community like

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other autistics will assume that someone has low support needs just because

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they made a video online and they don't know they have no idea like who this

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person actually is and what they've been through in their life and what

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supports they require even to be there making that video in that moment I feel

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like it's um and many others have expressed this to a harmful over

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generalization when you see someone and call them low support needs just because

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they made a video online and to me and in the opinion of many others as well and

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can come across as ableist so in the same way that I feel like aspie

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supremacy is very harmful and erases the experience of higher support needs

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individuals and can de demean and dehumanize higher support needs

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individuals and I think that's absolutely a problem that needs to be

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addressed there's also the problem of people even within the artistic

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community assuming that a certain person has low support needs just because they

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make a video or write a statement online you still don't know like who this

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person is and what their needs really are and what they may have been through

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I also see a lot of misdirected anger around people that are self-diagnosed

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there's this false conception this is false idea that people that are self

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diagnosed because mind you a lot of people can't afford a formal diagnosis

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and the DSM is based on presentations of autism and ADHD and young white males so

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it excludes a huge population and so there's misdirected anger because

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somehow people believe that self-diagnosed people are somehow taking

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away resources from officially diagnosed people and so I just wanted to

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remind everybody that this is a narrative that is constantly pushed by

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neurotypicals it is wrapped in ableism and classism and it's a way of avoiding

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taking responsibility for accommodating disabled people and also turning

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autistic people against each other and pushing that that narrative which is

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very harmful as if a narrative that basically tells you that if unless you

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have a typical presentation of what most people believe that autism or ADHD is

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supposed to look like that you cannot be considered autistic and then cannot be

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consequently given support so I feel like it is a way of non-disabled society

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to not see and not accommodate folks that are able to mask on a daily basis even

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though it causes extreme exhaustion you know like that I feel like it's um it's

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the fact that they can mask makes people want them to just keep masking so so they

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can't provide so they so people can feel like they don't need to provide

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accommodations oh because this person can mask because they're fine and a lot of

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times they're not fine they're completely exhausted from having to mask over and

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over or over again and that's why people are it's so important for many people to

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get that late diagnosis and for a lot of people they're not able to get a

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professional diagnosis mainly because of the cost and also because of like there's

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still a lot of medical ableism and a lot of misinformation and I've heard

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stories of people being told that they can't be autistic because they're in a

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relationship or because they walked up a stair the stairs so there's this very

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negative stigmatized view full of ableism of what autistics are quote-unquote

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supposed to look like to many people and so I get frustrated that it seems like

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neurotypicals are infiltrating infiltrating the autistic community and

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spreading the misinformation and then somehow leading higher support needs

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autistics to believe that lower support needs autistics would take away from

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them by by asking for resources and accommodations where the real problem is

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there are not enough the system the system does not provide enough resources

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if there's only a little bit of juice in a cup and you have two kids arguing

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over it it's not that one kid is taking away juice from the other it is that

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there's not enough juice in the cup there the system is not providing enough

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juice the system is not providing enough in the way of accommodations and support

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for everybody and the different levels of different kinds of support that people

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need and so I just wanted to remind everybody no one knows about an

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experience better than the person living that experience many people can't

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afford a diagnosis and this hurts this hurts undiagnosed people that do not

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fit the white male stereotypes a lot of autistic women who've been masking their

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entire lives and not knowing they were autistic and just thinking that there

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was something wrong with them and not getting support and struggling and you

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know a lot of times there are a lot of sadly a lot of a lot of times these

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people have harmed themselves because they are not getting the understanding

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and support they need so it's really harmful to you know when to call them

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trendy or just like no one is doing this for attention like no one wants to have

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to be to be growing up in the ableist society that we do as an autistic person

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and the problem is not being autistic the problem is the people the problem is

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the society and the bullying and the mistreatment and so we need to blame

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the system for not providing these worried resources not people for so-called

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taking away what taking them away or whatnot and I myself was led to believe

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for a long time that I'd be taking away from others by asking for accommodations

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and and because of how prevalent internalized ableism is in our society I

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was really led to believe for that for believe that for a long time and I feel

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like I didn't really embrace even though I was lucky to have a professional

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diagnosis in age 16 I feel like I didn't really embrace that diagnosis and embrace

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like oh okay this is what I need you know this is how my brain works and like I

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need things done differently and like to to be able to ask for support sometimes

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and and and then I later realized that it's actually the fault of the system

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for not providing enough support for everyone it's not that I'm taking away

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from people that's so-called deserve and more or whatever because I think that

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everyone deserves the accommodations that they need and and you know this

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whole contract of like who deserves it more or were not as like very rooted in

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and ruining in your own normativity and capitalism and we shouldn't all be

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forced to be birds turned against each other seeking for survival we need more

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support we need the system to provide more support for everybody we need to

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fight together for more support and resources and instead of fighting against

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each other we need the system to provide more resources for everybody and and so I

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hope that I hope that I got my points across in this episode I know it was

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kind of a little bit all over the place but those are the main points that I

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wanted to emphasize in this episode I just wanted to remind every autistic

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person out there that you are valid no matter your background no matter your

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support needs and let's let's be mindful that support needs can fluctuate on a

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daily basis you can have high support needs one day and low support needs the

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next day and obviously you know there are main things like there are

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differences like people that are able to live alone and care for themselves and

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and so-and-so and there are a lot of differences but one just one of those

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things does not determine if you are always high support needs or you're

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always low support needs support needs are still a very dynamic thing and I

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think that's really important for people to understand and people I really

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want everyone to to understand that they are valid and they do deserve support

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and accommodations have being self-diagnosed formally diagnosed or

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not diagnosed everyone deserves support and I feel like this all gets

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mulled and broken into groups and like who deserves more and who deserves less

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based on like how much support they appear to need and we have to remember

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that what someone appears on the outside is not always what they are what they are

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going through on the inside so I just wanted to remind everybody about that

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once again I hope you enjoyed this episode I hope it was helpful for

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everybody be me them near or typical or neurodivergent thank you for listening

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and I will talk to you next time